Magento Live Conference Update

MagentoLive took place last week in London, England. The conference offered web developers and entrepreneurs a chance to learn about the platform, and also find out where the company is heading and what their plans are for the next couple of years.
Magento is an eCommerce solutions provider. They attracted a lot of attention last year when they were acquired by eBay, and they are used by a number of major online stores; but don’t let their size fool you – Magento is a company that caters to everyone, not just huge brands.
Magento CEO Roy Rubin announced at the conference that the company is not a technology focused company at all, rather they are a company focused on innovation. Instead of pushing for a certain direction with the platform, Magento is listening to what customers need, and working with the Magento partner community to deliver solutions.
Magento powers more than 125,000 online stores. Some of those run on Magento Enterprise – the most expensive version of the platform, which comes with full support. Smaller stores run on Magento Community Edition, which is the solution for people that lack the $14,000+ for an Enterprise license, but do have enough time, and a willingness to get their hands dirty, to install the solution themselves.
In June of this year, Magento released a new SaaS version of Magento, titled Magento Go. The hosted solution runs from $15 to $125 per month, and is a good option for people that don’t want to have to mess with servers and config files.
Magento Live focused on the partner community, and talked about the key drivers of the eCommerce industry at the moment – Social, Mobile, Local and Global. Rubin believes that for a company to succeed, they need to embrace all of those drivers, in particular mobile and social, which are rapidly expanding areas in the United Kingdom at the moment.
One example which was given was that of Heckfield Place, a company with a sophisticated site that looks great on all platforms, from the smallest smartphone to the highest resolution monitor. The site is powered by Magento, and is a great example of what can be done with the technology.
This was the first Magento Live conference, and it was a big success. Hopefully it will return to London next year.